UT partnership pairs AI education with Tennessee’s manufacturers
This partnership brings together emerging technology experts and manufacturers across the state to help upskill workers in AI without losing the human touch.
On Aug. 6, the UT Institute for Public Service’s Center for Industrial Services (CIS) and UT Knoxville‘s College of Emerging and Collaborative Studies (CECS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formalizing a partnership to expand AI education in support for manufacturers across Tennessee.
UT System President Randy Boyd opened the signing ceremony by recalling his years running Radio Systems Corp., now PetSafe Brands™.
“As a business person of my company for 30 years, CIS was always somewhere with my COO or my VP of Manufacturing. I never was quite sure why they were there, but I knew they were doing a lot of really good stuff,” Boyd joked. “Now, of course, I’ve come to work at the University of Tennessee, and I understand what CIS and the University does fully. We’re here to serve the people of Tennessee, including its manufacturers. We help companies like mine be more efficient, more productive, hire more people and be more successful in the state.”
But why exactly does this responsibility fall on the University’s shoulders?
Higher education produces that workforce, and drives a whole lot of technology innovation.
“Something that I think higher education has to do to meet the needs of the future workforce is to be adaptive. We’ve got to be engaged with industry, talking to the industry and finding out what the needs are, and then creating customized programs for each individual business, maybe for each individual person. That’s the future of higher education,” Boyd explained. “We have this great organization called CIS, and we have this great college called CECS. How do you make it even better? You put them together, and you have the MOU.”
The partnership builds on a completed pilot
The new agreement grew out of a 16-week AI in Manufacturing pilot that CECS and CIS ran with DENSO to help their employees apply AI to their everyday processes.
Thirty-five engineers from DENSO’s U.S. and Canadian manufacturing sites took part, working through topics like machine learning, generative AI, predictive maintenance, quality inspection and production line design.
“AI is an important tool for helping our teams work smarter, but it does not replace the knowledge, judgment and creativity our team members bring to manufacturing every day,” said Marty Deschenes, DENSO’s North America chief manufacturing officer. “Through this collaboration, we are helping our teams better understand where AI can support their work while keeping our talented people at the center of our operations.”
CECS Vice Provost and Dean Ozlem Kilic and CIS Executive Director Paul Jennings both echoed their excitement for the partnership. From confirming what’s possible when academic innovation and industry expertise come together to laying the foundation to scale this statewide, they are ready for more.
The first offering under the agreement is the AI in Manufacturing Workforce Certificate, an open-enrollment expansion of the DENSO training now available to manufacturers statewide. The first cohort begins Oct. 1.
Learn more and apply here.
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